


Brevity

by Anonymous



Series: Nano 2018 [4]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Canon Typical Violence, Gen, for like two whole lines, surprise it's another au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 13:01:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17426378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: As the Soul King, it was getting a little bit frustrating watching everyone run around doing exactly the opposite of what he actually wanted them to do. Every time he turned around it seemed like Central 46 and Gotei 13 were killing someone else, and he was tired of it. Then there was Aizen, and that really was the last straw. Soul Society was decaying, rotten through the center, and guess what? The Soul King decided it was time to fix it.He saw his chance when a Quincy and a Shinigami met and married. The rest-





	Brevity

**Author's Note:**

> Snapshots, essentially.

Ichigo did his best not to stick out so much, but it was pretty impossible. Aside from his appearance, there seemed to be something in his aura that just screamed 'Please come fight me' to every half-assed punk and wannabe in town. It made the walk to school difficult, and almost monotonous with the amount of fighting from point A to point B. At least they'd gotten the message about never messing with his sisters.

This was on top of his ability to see dead people, who also liked to follow him around. At least they weren't attacking him, he supposed.

Taking all of this into consideration, it only made sense when he was forced into a whole new world that explained so much and yet- left a lot of things unanswered. Karin and Yuzu agreed with him; something was up with that.

"It makes sense that there are people out there who know what the monsters are," said Karin during a family meeting (minus their dad), "plus given the fact that mom was actively trying to protect you from the monster when she died, it would make less sense if there wasn't anyone." Bless Karin and her logic which had twisted just enough to allow for supernatural events. Yuzu agreed vigorously.

"That doesn't explain- I mean, dad acts like he knows nothing," Ichigo added,

"Acts being the key word here," Karin muttered, kicking at Ichigo's desk.

"But he and mom were married. If she knew there were monsters out there, why wouldn't she warn dad about them, and why wouldn't he warn us?" Yuzu asked, grabbing Karin's foot before she made a permanent dent in the wood.

"It might have made sense to hide it when we were younger, but after Ichi-nii was attacked, and now that he is very obviously involved with ghosts more than ever, why wouldn't he just tell us?" And for that, no one had an answer. This didn't sit well with any of the Kurosaki kids, although Yuzu was slightly more inclined to give Goat-face the benefit of the doubt. Ichigo sighed.

"Right. Well, unless he decides to fess up we're at an impasse with that route. He's sticking with his oblivious act, so we'll have to work through this ourselves. Now that I've got my own magical girl form-"

"It is not a magical girl form, Ichi-nii, please stop saying that, you're so embarrassing."

"People who can see hollows are starting to crawl out of the woodwork. I'm going to do my best to get information, I want to try and see if there's not a way to keep hollows from coming into the house, at least. Karin, Yuzu, while I've got all eyes on me, do your best to keep your ears open. Play up that innocent younger sister act."

Yuzu and Karin shared a grin. "People really shouldn't underestimate us, should they Nii-chan?"

Ichigo felt very proud at that moment, he'd brought his sisters up so well. "It's their mistake. By the way, I'm going to try and bring a classmate of mine over. He's been raised knowing about hollows, and he kind of owes me for setting loose a storm of monsters last week-"

"Wait, that was intentional?!"

"And he's kind of a stick in the mud, but he's not too bad once you egg him on a little. He knows a lot about hollows, but he's an actual human, so his perspective will definitely be valuable. Plus he needs to socialize a bit, get pulled out of his own head." Karin sighed like Ichigo had asked her to give up soccer for a year.

"If I have to."

"Find out what he likes for dinner, nii-chan," replied Yuzu.

Honestly, his sisters were pretty great.

`~`~`~`~`~

Soul Society was pretty terrible. What the hell. What the actual hell. Between the joke of a justice system, the elitist bullshit everywhere, don't get Ichigo started on the Rukongai, the fuck, oh! And did he mention the hypocrisy?

Honor, ha! There was no honor here, it was all pride. Duty? Only to saving their own asses.

Okay, maybe not every single person was like that. But too many, and most of them were in positions of power. Ichigo felt himself grow angry just thinking about how Byakuya viewed his duty to his little sister. If he wasn't going to protect her, he shouldn't have adopted her in the first place! He literally chose that responsibility. This world made Ichigo really stab-happy. Fortunately, there were quite a few targets. Unfortunately, they stabbed back, plus Ichigo didn't really want to kill them. He was here for a jail break/rescue mission (NOT an invasion, thanks. Pretty sure you needed more than a couple teens and their pet cat to count as an invading force), and didn't want to give the Gotei 13 more reason to come after him by way of stabbing a few too many of their shinigami.

Then there was the great reveal. Oh no, one of their own was a traitor. Who could have guessed.

Besides Ichigo, it seemed that the answer was literally nobody. Or at least, not anyone who felt compelled to do something about it. The city was shiny but rotten, and Ichigo felt an urge to shower.

He also felt like he was forgetting something, up on that execution hill. He just wasn't sure what.

`~`~`~`~`~

It seemed that Ichigo had officially been caught in a game much, much bigger than he'd expected. Not that he regretted saving Rukia, or that he hadn't expected some kind of fall out. He just hadn't expected the rabbit hole to go quite so deep, or for his dad to be quite so involved.

So fine, Ichigo had done some sneaking at the Shiba house, and well. It wasn't completely unexpected, considering how much Ichigo looked like that Kaien guy, but it still wasn't a super fantastic feeling when he realized just how much Goat-face had been keeping from everyone.

Then there was the…somethings. Someones? In his head. Oh, and the dreams. Can't forget those. Ichigo's sleep had gone completely to shit recently, and his control was wearing thin. Sometimes his dad said something for his 'oblivious' act and Ichigo just wanted to snap. The girls were concerned.

"So… summing everything up, dad is a big fat liar,"

"You're having memories? Dreams? Nightmares? Every night,"

"And there are voices inside your head-

"Angry voices."

"That shouldn't be there,"

"And there's an inter-dimensional war coming,"

"That you're pretty sure everyone expects you to be in."

Karin and Yuzu looked at Ichigo, then each other, then back at Ichigo.

"That's about it. On the bright side, Ishida's coming over when dad isn't here tomorrow and he's going to put some wards up. So at least we'll get a break from the dead people." Karin rolled her eyes.

"That's a pretty thin silver lining, Ichi-nii."

"But it's better than nothing," added Yuzu firmly. Ichigo patted her on the head like she hated.

"Thanks, Yuzu. The worst thing is, I'm pretty sure the person who could possibly help me with the voices-in-my-head-thing is the person who caused them." Yuzu gasped.

"There you go, trusting people again, Ichi-nii. When will you learn?" Karin punched him in the arm.

"Nice swing, brat. It was sort of necessary. I was on a time crunch with the whole execution thing." Karin punched him again on principle.

"Yeah, whatever. So are you going to talk to him about it?"

Ichigo thought for a moment.

"Yeah, I think I will. I don't think…I think he needs me enough that he probably has a plan or an idea. He's the mad scientist sort," he explained. Yuzu crinkled her nose.

"If you say so."

`~`~`~`~`~

Ichigo wasn't as empirically confident in his plan as he seemed, but there was no way he was going to risk something in his soul hurting his sisters. Or his friends, for that matter. Or even Goat-face, he guessed. Whatever it was kept growing- maybe not stronger, but more influential. Prevalent. It needed addressing, at least. And Ichigo highly doubted his stupid dad was going to cut his stupid act and actually help, assuming he even knew how, so the creepy shopkeeper it was.

It was both more and less difficult than Ichigo expected. He really hated depending on someone else for something to important to him and his family, and he also wasn't sure how far Urahara would go trying to pretend everything was okay. From Ichigo's experience, most shinigami were so far in denial it was a miracle they hadn't drowned in it.

Surprisingly, Urahara had given way fairly quickly, apologizing again, this time for pulling out Ichigo's inner hollow (the hell, honestly?) and then not saying anything about it. Ichigo felt surprisingly chill about it. Perhaps it was the novelty of having someone admit they'd messed up and then say sorry to him. Perhaps Ichigo's standards of acceptable behaviors was way too low. Whatever. Urahara had introduced him to a rather unique group of individuals who 'have experience with your sort of problem, Ichigo-san'.

Yeah, okay. They still acted a bit stuck-up, but he supposed even former shinigami were like that. Ichigo could deal, especially if they actually helped him not turn into a sister-eating monster.

Ichigo didn't mention the memory/nightmares. He didn't trust them that much.

`~`~`~`~`~

It's in these final moments, where he has to choose between keeping Zangetsu (himself) and protecting the world that Ichigo finally remembers. He wants to laugh hysterically, but there's still an edge of panic coming from his Soul that keeps it bottled up. Right.

Ichigo jolts back to the tunnel, and Shiba Isshin is still there, and looks worried.

Ichigo is not. He Remembers, and will not forget. He knows why he is here, and there is no way he is going to let some ridiculous infant get away with rebuilding the world. The tunnel melts away (and Isshin panics completely. Ichigo continues to ignore him) and Ichigo is back facing Aizen. But he is not alone, and he understands his strength and his role. Aizen isn't even a pebble on this path. Ichigo is here to Protect, and if he has to burn down every heretic one by one then he will.

Aizen begins some sort of ridiculous monologue about his own power, and how weak Ichigo is compared to him, and blah blah blah. He doesn't even have time to look surprised before he is beheaded and Ichigo leeches out the Hogyoku. It is a powerful little weapon, but the Soul King can sense the soul power within, and as is his duty, he simply sorts them through to their next life. It is empty, and the nearly limitless power Aizen was counting on drains away, his body left a shell. Ichigo drops the orb and it shatters.

With the threat removed, Ichigo is restless and torn. Part of him is still very, very young and surrounded by memories that are old and old and old again in comparison. Part of him is shaking because what if he'd had to sacrifice Zangetsu? All of him feels tired, and melancholy. There is a lot of work to do, and while Ichigo doesn't regret keeping himself, doesn't regret protecting his family, a part of him feels sad because this has permanently removed him from so much that he loves.

On the plus side, Ichigo is no longer a strange conglomeration of powers, slap-dashed together in an effort to increase power at all costs. He simply IS, and even now he can feel the worlds rotating and realigning. He can't stay here long. He doesn't have a good grasp on his control, and there is no way Ichigo is going to destroy everything he was trying to protect. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Urahara and Isshin watching him, approaching him warily, and he leaves them behind.

**Author's Note:**

> Missing scenes:
> 
> -This…ended a lot sadder than I thought. Umm, but Ichigo gets better control eventually, and forces Central 46 to let go of a lot of their power and the Gotei 13 to remember what they were actually created for
> 
> -He kills Ywach, and fixes the Quincy problem
> 
> -Karin and Yuzu join him as soon as they die, and he figures out how to share responsibilities with them so he isn't drowned in his own powers
> 
> Side note:
> 
> My favorite scene is when Karin punches Ichigo but he doesn't mind, he's just so proud that she's so good at punching. Which, same? Like I was always annoyed but at the same time I also felt like, 'wow, my brother's pretty good at this, I remember changing your diaper'.
> 
> This was supposed to be a really short one. But then I fell in love with Ichigo actually interacting with his sisters. I'm a sucker for good sibling relationships, sue me.


End file.
